Joshua Benjamin Trankis an American film director, screenwriter, and film editor. He is known for directing the found-footage sci-fi thriller film Chronicle (2012), the superhero film Fantastic Four (2015), and the Al Capone biographical film Capone (2020).
Career
During an interview with Kevin Smith on the podcast Fatman on Batman, Trank discussed the origins of his career at length. He attributed his YouTube video "Stabbing at Leia's 22nd Birthday", which became very popular overnight after its release, as a significant breakthrough point for his career. Following this, Trank wrote and directed spin-off webisodes for the 2007 Spike TV drama miniseries The Kill Point. In 2009, Trank edited the independent film Big Fan, starring Patton Oswalt. He was also credited as a co-producer and had a small acting role in the film.
In 2011, Trank directed his first feature film, Chronicle. It was released on February 3, 2012, by 20th Century Fox and grossed over $125 million worldwide. Chronicle, made for a budget of $12 million, was received positively by critics, earning an 85% score on Rotten Tomatoes. With the release of Chronicle, Trank became the youngest director to open a film at number one at the US box office, at age 27. He is followed by Steven Spielberg (28, with Jaws) and James Cameron (30, with The Terminator). After the release of Chronicle, Trank was linked to Sony's Spider-Man spin-off Venom, Warner Bros.'s The Red Star, and Sony's film adaptation of the video game Shadow of the Colossus; however, Trank turned down those film projects, despite turning in a pitch of a R-rated film of Venom in the vein of The Mask that he wrote with his mentor Robert D. Siegel.
Trank directed the 2015 reboot of Fantastic Four, which was released in August 2015. The film flopped at the box office and was critically panned; it received a 9% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and a 27 out of 100 rating from Metacritic. Trank became the subject of controversy when he posted and quickly deleted a message on Twitter prior to the release of the film, apparently blaming the poor reviews on changes imposed by the studio, claiming to have originally cut a completely different film which would have been much better. Equally dissatisfied with the final film, actor Toby Kebbell, who worked with Trank on the film, supported Trank's claim. However, in early 2020, Trank stated that there were several scenes he was unable to film, making a director's cut highly improbable.
In June 2014, it was announced that Trank would direct a stand-alone Star Wars film about Boba Fett, but he left the project less than a year later. Trank indicated this was a personal decision, but several outlets stated that he was dismissed from the project due to issues during production of Fantastic Four, primarily a lack of communication with the film's producers, and that Lucasfilm had decided to pursue another director. Trank told the Los Angeles Times in an interview that the reason he left the film was because he wanted to do something original and smaller-scale, due to the amount of online scrutiny he received during the filming of Fantastic Four.
In 2020, following a five-year hiatus from directing, Trank wrote and directed his original Al Capone biopic Capone, with Tom Hardy starring. It was released through video on demand on May 12, 2020, receiving mixed reviews from critics.
In May 2020, it was announced that Trank was developing a television series about the CIA, with Hardy starring.
In March 2025, it was announced that Trank will be directing a horror-thriller film Send a Scare, with Victoria Justice and Robbie Amell set to star in.
